Food & Wine

TripAdvisor to redefine Canberra restaurant locations

Our Kusina restaurant at Cooleman Court in Weston Creek is listed on TripAdvisorwith the street address city of Weston. We’re currently number one of the twelve restaurants in the city of Weston, but the good city of Weston is actually near Newcastle, about 4.5hrs by car from our restaurant. I’ve not personally been there, but I’m sure it’s lovely.

Unfortunately, a TripAdvisor listing’s city can only be updated by the TripAdvisor support folks, following an online request.

I’ve spent the past few months trading email correspondence with TripAdvisor staff, who politely informed me that “We appreciate your feedback and the same is being investigated. Rest assured, all applicable correct measures will be performed.” It appears that business owners frequently seek to cash-in on a nearby city’s locality instead of being correctly listed in their own city.

I’ve explained Canberra’s geographic composition, its suburbs and regional centres to TripAdvisor. I’ve provided links to Canberra’s suburb wikipedia site and the Google map location of the city of Weston. I’ve also pointed out that the Google map insert that appears next to their listing of our restaurant (which is Weston, NSW) is not even in our state. I also sent references for other Canberra restaurants, pointing out that most of us are not located in the Canberra city centre. All I have sought is for our restaurant to be available in the Canberra restaurant list, so we can be an option for interstate travelers.

I was recently advised the following;

Our editors have completed their investigation into your location inquiry and we are glad to inform you that, from now on, your business will appear in the search for ACT, Greater Canberra and Weston.

This is aligned to the businesses that are listed in the suburbs of Canberra, such as Woden Valley, Weston and the likes.

Essentially, businesses that are listed in the city of Canberra has to be within the aforementioned city. Establishments that are in the suburbs but within the ACT and Canberra boundary will be pegged appropriately – appearing in the search for ACT, Greater Canberra and their associated suburbs.

Such a response was not foreseen and is quite regrettable. If you own a Canberra restaurant listed on TripAdvisor you might benefit from sending help@tripadvisor.com a brief email re-affirming your city location.

I can only assume that TripAdvisor will soon commence re-allocating Canberra’s restaurants to be listed everywhere other than ‘Canberra’. If you were visiting Canberra from interstate – what search term would you use in TripAdvisor?

We’ve since asked VisitCanberra and the Canberra business chamber to assist in correcting our listing, but would appreciate any other assistance or advice from our fellow Canberrans.